


ritual sacrifice

by perfectlyrose



Series: Everyday Magic [10]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Magic, F/M, Magic, Mutual Pining, Romance, Universe Alteration, by that i mean as usual there is a lot of, going on, magic!rose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23616685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectlyrose/pseuds/perfectlyrose
Summary: Everything had gone so wrong so fast. It was supposed to be a relaxing day on Ristri. A bit of sightseeing, a bit of shopping, maybe dinner out if she could talk the Doctor into it. One last outing before going to pick Jack up from his two week vacation.
Relationships: Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Everyday Magic [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/340036
Comments: 25
Kudos: 77





	ritual sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> um yes, hello. i have returned with an offering to this series after another two year absence and time spent writing in another fandom ♥

Rose watched with wide eyes, panic racing through her veins as the Doctor fought against the Ristrians trying to restrain him. Her own arms were secured behind her back. She tugged against the hands holding her in place but clawed fingers dug into her arms harder in response.

Everything had gone so wrong so fast. It was supposed to be a relaxing day on Ristri. A bit of sightseeing, a bit of shopping, maybe dinner out if she could talk the Doctor into it. One last outing before going to pick Jack up from his two week vacation.

Rose still wasn’t sure what exactly had led to them being arrested, restrained, and marched straight to what she thought was some sort of temple. If she had to guess, they landed in the wrong time period. It’s certainly not the first time this has happened, but they’re not usually dealt with like this.

She was pulled to a halt just inside a circle of columns making up the inner room of the temple. There are sigils etched into each of the columns and an altar in the center of the room. Even without being able to inspect the sigils, she could feel the power emanating from them. The magic slid over her, oily and unpleasant.

The Ristrians dragged the Doctor to the center of the room, just in front of the altar. He was arguing with them, trying to negotiate their release or something. Rose couldn’t focus on what he was saying. She furrowed her brow as she reached out with her own magic to probe the sigils.

She sucked in a breath when the foreign magic lashed out at her probe, blanketing her in some sort of suppression charm. The golden warmth that lived in her chest was suddenly cold, cut off from use.

Panicked, she turned her attention back to what was happening with the Doctor. Their eyes locked and she could read the worry there, could read the question of if she could get them out of this one.

Rose’s heart dropped as she shook her head. She didn’t know if the sigils were even visible to the Doctor so she didn’t bother even trying to bring them to his attention. He couldn’t do anything about them anyways.

The Ristians were mumbling amongst themselves now. One of them broke away from the group and retrieved something from a cabinet built into the altar. Rose stared along with her captors as a large and extremely well cared for sword was laid on the stone. The sword had a golden sheen to it and Rose could see the edge to the blade from across the room.

Any plan the Ristians had for them that involved a sword like that meant nothing good. This ceremony or punishment or whatever they brought them here for wasn’t going to be a simple thing, wasn’t going to be something they walked away from mostly unscathed.

Dread started to build in the pit of Rose’s stomach as one of the aliens, the one dressed in red robes, picked up the sword and started chanting. She couldn’t parse what they were saying. The translation had been wonky since they landed so she was getting one word in ten at best. The Doctor seemed to be able to understand though, and the  _ panic _ on his face said everything she needed to know.

“Rose,” he called out, keeping his eyes on the sword-wielding priest or whatever he was. “Run. Get back to the TARDIS and wait there. She’ll get you home.”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“Go!”

Rose strained against the hold of her captors, trying to get to the Doctor, but their grip on her arms was ironclad. She tried desperately to get her magic to respond to her, to do  _ anything _ , but it slipped away from her grasp every time.

“Rose, go!” The Doctor ordered again, voice riddled with urgency.

The chanting rose to its pinnacle as the priest raised the sword. The Doctor closed his eyes as the sword swung towards his neck.

Rose  _ screamed _ .

The magic surged out of her — a wave of unbridled power that seemed to burst out of her chest — with her scream, tearing through whatever charm had tamped it down like it was tissue paper.

The world froze. Nobody moved an inch except the Doctor who yanked free of his captors and stepped away from the blade that had been scant inches from his neck.

Rose fell to her knees just as the Doctor turned to look at her. The pain of landing on the solid stone floor barely registered.

The Doctor stared at Rose in awe. She was awash in gold still, brighter than he’d ever seen. He’d felt her magic rush over him without harm and he was breathless from it. His skin tingled from the power that had touched him.

“Rose.” Her name escaped his mouth like a prayer.

She raised her face to look at him as the gold glow began to recede. He barely had time to read the fear in her eyes before she collapsed forward, hitting the ground before he could move more than a step.

The Doctor carefully gathered her in his arms, searching for injuries. There was a bright red spot along her cheekbone from hitting the floor that would bruise, but nothing else. He knew that expending magical energy could lead to exhaustion, had learned that when she’d had to uncurse him. He’d never seen her go down this fast, though, and his hearts were pounding with worry.

He’d also never seen her use that much power before or lash out so instinctively.

A quick glance told him the Ristians around them were still frozen. The Doctor didn’t want to wait around to see when or if they’d start moving again. He stood, Rose a worrying deadweight in his arms and took off towards the TARDIS.

He felt his ship’s worried hum as soon as he stepped inside. He wanted to have her take off from this cursed place, but he knew that Rose would likely want to check on the consequences of her magic when she awoke. She’d said as much once, that she’d feel obliged to undo the effects of any magic that did harm if she had to do any to save them.

The Doctor hated that he’d put them in a situation that had forced her to do so.

He took Rose straight to the medbay, let the scanner check for any damage he hadn’t been able to see. It couldn’t eliminate the bruise on her cheek or the ones on her knees, but it at least would speed the healing process and luckily didn’t pick up on any additional injuries.

Once the scanner was done, he carefully picked her up and carried her to her room. The Doctor laid her on the bed, removed her shoes, and carefully tucked her in. She felt a little warm now, like the expenditure of energy had caused a low-grade fever.

Navigating the aftermath would wait however long it took Rose to recover. They’d have to talk about Rose refusing to run and leave him behind. It wasn’t exactly surprising, but his chest ached with how close they’d come to never walking out of that temple, how close he’d come to being killed in front of Rose before she herself became a sacrifice. Dealing with the fact that he’d almost died, that he could have regenerated before ever telling Rose about the process, could wait until later too. Maybe wait forever, if he had any say in it.

He knew it would be hours before she woke, knew she might sleep for an entire day with how much magic she’d used, but he pulled her chair up to the side of the bed and settled in to wait, his hand entwined with hers.

**Author's Note:**

> you can still find me on [tumblr](https://perfectlyrose.tumblr.com) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/LionessNapping) though i'm mostly entrenched in another fandom on twitter ♥


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